March 14, 2017

The Sufi spiritual leader and his adopted daughter were killed in northern Bangladesh

Similar killings in recent years have been blamed on suspected members of militant groups

Bangladesh has suffered a wave of attacks in recent years by Islamist militants

NEW DELHI: Unknown assailants shot and hacked to death a Sufi spiritual leader and his adopted daughter in northern Bangladesh, police said Tuesday.

Local police chief Hamidul Alam said the bodies of Farhad Hossain
Chowdhury and his daughter, Rupali Begum, were recovered late Monday
from a shrine Chowdhury ran in Dinajpur district.

Alam said police are still investigating the case and have not ruled
out the involvement of militant groups. Similar killings in recent years
have been blamed on suspected members of militant groups in the Sunni
Muslim-majority country.

The official said police are also considering other possibilities,
including a personal dispute. Chowdhury had been a local leader of the
main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party
in the past but left politics in recent years to run the shrine, where
followers practiced various rituals. Many Islamic groups say such
shrine-based rituals are anti-Islamic.
Bangladesh has suffered a wave of attacks in recent years by Islamist
militants targeting atheist bloggers, writers, publishers and members of
religious minorities, including people adhering to Sufism.

In an attack last year, a band of militants killed 20 hostages including 17 foreigners in a restaurant in Dhaka, the capital.
The Islamic State
group has claimed responsibility for some of the killings, but the
government has insisted they were the acts of domestic groups and that
the Islamic State has no presence in the country.

About 40 suspected militants have been killed in police raids since July last year.

Map of L K Advani's Rath Yatra of 1990

About Us / Disclaimer

This is a collaborative space run by an informal collective of people from across India and elsewhere. The blog was started many years ago under the aegis of South Asia Citizens Web. All web content placed here is done in public interest; it may be freely used by people for non commercial purposes. Please remember to give credit to original copyrighted sources and seek permission for further use.Disclaimer:Posting of content here does not constitute endorsement by the Communalism Watch Cooperative.